Monday, May 25, 2009

Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling

Mark's sweet Grandma Smith passed away last Sunday and we drove to Rigby, Idaho for the funeral on Wednesday. Her daughter-in-law and two of her granddaughters sang the song "Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling" at the funeral as per her request. It was hard to not cry and also hard to not have a big smile on our faces because she has been ready to go for a long time. Her first husband passed away when Mark was probably a year old and then her second husband passed away in 1992. She has missed him very much and has said for the longest time that she was ready to go and be with her "Howard." She also loved to tell us that she could be taken at any moment because she was humble after all. We haven't seen Grandma Smith for a few years because of her health and because of the distance. We were in her area last Thanksgiving and would've gone to see her but she didn't know who anyone was anymore and Mark wanted to remember her when she was spunky and had her memory. I think it would've been too hard to see her the way she has been the last few years. I wanted to list a few things that I remember about Beula and that I will treasure about her. When they had the Teton Dam flood in 1976 there was tons and tons of fabric that people thought had been ruined by the flood and people were just going to throw it away. Mark's Grandparents (being the resourceful people they were) knew they could wash it and reuse a lot of it. Grandma Smith washed tons of fabric and cloth and made quilts for people who had lost blankets due to the flood and then later she made quilts for her family. We have a quilt with some of that material. Mark's Grandma also made our wedding cake. It was three layers and was beautiful. It had red roses on it. Her and Howard also cooked a lot of the food that we had at our reception. Grandma Smith loved her flower garden and took care of it with such love and grace. The flowers in her backyard were immaculate. Grandma Smith also had rows and rows of raspberries. If we ever stopped by her place in the summer we would go outside and pick raspberries and sit and eat in the backyard and talk to her. She wouldn't let us leave without taking some jars of bottled raspberries. They were delicious.Grandma also flew out to California when Kiah was baptized and then when we went to the Temple with Sofia later that day. She was so happy to be there with us and her family. Grandma Smith had many trials in her life and a lot of them brought on by her own family members but she never gave up and her faith never wavered. Mark's uncle Doug and his family did a video one night a few years ago of Grandma and interviewed her, they wanted to ask a bunch of questions about her life before she couldn't remember anymore. They asked at the end of the CD what she would like to tell her family, that she would want them to remember. She said " to always stay close to their Heavenly Father and to always bear their Testimony of him." Then they asked if she would like to sing a song and she sang the one I mentioned above. It was so sweet. She will be missed but at the same time, she lived a full life. She was 86 when she passed away. We all know she is with her "Howard" and as happy as can be.